Free Portuguese Tool

How Many Portuguese Words Do You Know?

30 words. 2 minutes. See your estimated Portuguese vocabulary size and CEFR level — using the same sampling method as academic vocabulary research.

Word 1 of 30Band 1 of 6

Do you know this word?

sim

Frequently Asked Questions

How does the vocabulary size estimation work?

We use a sampling method: we show you words drawn from different frequency bands of Portuguese (e.g. the top 500 words, the 2,000–4,000 range, and so on). The proportion you know from each band is used to extrapolate your total vocabulary across the whole language. It is the same approach used in academic vocabulary size research.

What counts as 'knowing' a word?

You 'know' a word if you can recognise it and understand its primary meaning in context without looking it up. Click 'I know it' only if you could use it in a sentence. Don't worry about perfect pronunciation or knowing every grammatical form.

How many words do I need to have a conversation in Portuguese?

Research suggests that the 1,000 most frequent words cover about 85% of everyday speech, and the top 3,000 words cover over 95%. For comfortable conversation, aim for 2,000–3,000 words (B1 level). For reading newspapers fluently, you need 8,000–10,000 words.